Gwen Knapp: With room to breathe, 49ers can air things out

The 49ers sit in a luxurious position right now, division winners with four games remaining, two of them against junior-varsity teams.

Jim Harbaugh has yet to evoke a new gremlin, a December version of Freddie P. Soft, that his team must ward off in the coming weeks – but navigating through the next month could be the most complicated task of Harbaugh’s transcendent first season as the 49ers’ head coach.

The second seed in the playoffs, with all its attendant perks, remains as an incentive, but the only team with a genuine chance to move into the No. 2 slot ahead of the 49ers is New Orleans, which has a substantially more difficult schedule in front of it. The 49ers’ main goal, as several players said after the division-clinching rout of the Rams, should be to keep upgrading. For this team, that would mean pushing the tight boundaries around the offense.

The coaches already started doing that Sunday, calling for Alex Smith to throw deep more than he has all season. After completing no passes longer than 44 yards in the first 11 games, he threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree and then a slant that Kyle Williams caught 8 yards from scrimmage and then took another 48 for a score.

Williams, fifth on the wide-receiver depth chart at the start of the year, has been a revelation. His explosive burst after the catch was startling, summoning memories of Jerry Rice confounding defenders in his prime. Crabtree appears much healthier now than early in the season; a recurrent foot injury kept him out of the preseason. What can Smith do with these two, and will the coaches keep experimenting?

“Thought (Alex) was outstanding. Threw some beautiful passes in this game,” Harbaugh said, before turning poetic. “Passes that went up, turned over, floated down like a feather on several plays.”

On Sunday in Arizona, the 49ers probably will let Smith continue to test himself. They have been more adventurous offensively in most of the recent games, if only because opponents have approached them with a “Don’t Let Frank Gore Beat Us” mentality.

Do the 49ers have the inclination or guts to lean heavily on Smith’s arm (and his line) 13 days from now, on “Monday Night Football” against the Steelers? Pittsburgh has the No. 1 defense in the NFL, and is No. 2 against the pass. A missed block on James Harrison could end Smith’s season. The Steelers, however, rank only 17th in sacks with 27, a full 14 behind the Ravens, who lavishly padded their stats when they played the 49ers on Thanksgiving Day.

If the 49ers have a two-game lead on New Orleans by then, they should air out the ball against the Steelers, giving the offense a chance to grow against the only playoff-caliber team on the last five weeks of the schedule.

Gore’s body certainly could use some rest, although persuading him to pace himself would be very difficult. Plus, without his pass-protection skills, Smith wouldn’t be test-driving his arm under real game conditions.

On Monday, Harbaugh wouldn’t even discuss whether he’d dial back the playing time of Patrick Willis, who missed most of Sunday’s game because of a hamstring injury, to let him refresh his body for the playoffs.

“We’re not in a position to rest,” Harbaugh said bluntly.

But they are in a position to experiment, to be bolder offensively. They should seize the opportunity.